Larry Rosenthal was charged with defrauding the MTA for more than $330,000. Rosenthal owned and operated a company that supplied electrical switches for MTA buses and was charged with supplying counterfeit switches for mobility impaired accessible buses. Photo: Steven Hirsch

His Brooklyn-based company, Megabite Electronics, was contracted from 2004 to 2011 for almost $550,000 for 8,500 electromagnetic switches that would be used in handicapped-accessible buses, according to the Manhattan DA’s office. At least 5,000 were knock-offs.

In May 2011, New York City Transit noticed the product had a high rate of failure, and the switches were not lasting long, according to the MTA Inspector General’s Office.

The MTA stopped using the vendor, and an investigation was launched in September 2011.

“Defrauding public agencies like the MTA winds up costing us all,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “Thanks to the sharp eye of an MTA procurement officer and the subsequent joint investigation by my Office and the MTA Inspector General, this ongoing theft of public monies is over.”

Rosenthal will serve 30 days in jail, and pay the MTA $350,000 in restitution.

“These guilty pleas send a strong warning to those inclined to cheat the MTA and endanger or burden its riders: you will be punished, bay back the MTA, and never do business with the MTA again,” said the authority’s Inspector General Barry Kluger.

Megabite Electronics also pleaded guilty to third degree identity theft charges and was hit with a $1,000 fine.

“I am deeply sorry for my actions,” Rosenthal said in court.

His lawyer Thomas Rotko said he “looks forward to repaying the MTA and putting this unfortunate incident behind him.”